RADON CHEMICAL PROPERTIES

Being a noble gas, radon is chemically not very reactive. However, the 3.8 day half-life of radon-222 makes it useful in physical sciences as a natural tracer.

Radon is a member of the zero-valence elements that are called noble gases. It is inert to most common chemical reactions, such as combustion, because the outer valence shell contains eight electrons. This produces a stable, minimum energy configuration in which the outer electrons are tightly bound. More than 248 kcal/mol is required to extract one electron from its shells (also known as the first ionization energy). However, due to periodic trends, radon has a lower electronegativity than the element one period before it, xenon, and is therefore more reactive. Radon is sparingly soluble in water, but more soluble than lighter noble gases. Radon is appreciably more soluble in organic liquids than in water. Early studies concluded that the stability of radon hydrate should be of the same order as that of the hydrates of chlorine (Cl2) or sulfur dioxide (SO2), and significantly higher than the stability of the hydrate of hydrogen sulfide (H2S).

Because of its price and radioactivity, experimental chemical research is seldom performed with radon, and as a result there are very few reported compounds of radon, all either fluorides or oxides. Radon can be oxidized by a few powerful oxidizing agents such as F2, thus forming radon fluoride. It decomposes back to elements at a temperature of above 250 °C. It has a low volatility and was thought to be RnF2. But because of the short half-life of radon and the radioactivity of its compounds, it has not been possible to study the compound in any detail. Theoretical studies on this molecule predict that it should have a Rn-F bond distance of 2.08 Å, and that the compound is thermodynamically more stable and less volatile than its lighter counterpart XeF2. The octahedral molecule RnF6 was predicted to have an even lower enthalpy of formation than the difluoride. The [RnF]+ ion is believed to form by the reaction:

Rn (g) + 2 [O2]+[SbF6] (s) → [RnF]+[Sb2F11] (s) + 2 O2 (g)

Radon oxides are among the few other reported compounds of radon. Radon carbonyl RnCO has been predicted to be stable and to have a linear molecular geometry. The molecules Rn2 and RnXe were found to be significantly stabilized by spin-orbit coupling. Radon caged inside a fullerene has been proposed as a drug for tumors.

 

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